Manufacture of artificial lumber.



No. 869,116. PATENTED OCT. 22. 1907.

0. E. WADE.

MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL LUMBER.

APPLICATION FILED sum: 13. 1 00s.

WITNESSES: Fffifl 'INVENTOR: I OMHBZIW/fll,

%%%W v w Y 7 15 val-max To all whom it may concern: a I

UNITED S TEsBATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES E. WADE, OF NORTH WALES, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOIt TO KEASBEY & MATTISON COMPANY, OF AMBLER, PENNSYLVANIA, A CORPORATION OF PENNSYLVANIA.

MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL LUMBER. I

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 22, 1907.

Application filed June 13. 19Q5- Serial No. 264.989.

' Be it known that I, CHARLES E. WADE, a citizen of the United States, residing at North Wales, in the county of Montgomery and State of Pennsylvania, have inventedpertain new and useful Improvements in the Manufacture of Artificial Lumber, whereof the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings. 1 J a My improvements relate to artificial lumber which is formed by combining fibrous material such as as,

. tion, certain portions being broken away so as to show the structure. Fig. II, represents the same in a modified form, and, Fig. III, represents a sectional view taken on the line III, III, iri Fig. II.

In United States Letters Patent 769,078, dated August th, 1904, and granted to Ludwig Hatschek, there is fully described a process of making artificial lumber of the character to whichmy invention relates.

mixture is-fed into a machine analogous to a paper machine by which successive layers of the resulting pulp are superimposed by winding upon a roller until the proper thickness has been secured. The composite cylindrical structure is'then slit and removed from the roller, flattened and subjected to extreme pressure, and when dried forms the exceedingly hard and durable structural material now-commonly known as artificial lumber. I i i I i My present invention consists in combining withsuch lumber a wire mesh .embeddedin its structure. In this way 'the strength of'th'e lumber is increased, and it becomes possible to use for structural purposes thinner layers 'or slabs of the lumber than could otherwise be employed. T7

The wire mesh may be of any ordinary form, but I have shown in the drawings at 1, the ordinary commercial wire mesh which I prefer to employ. This is embedded in the material during the process of its forma-' tion as follows :A piece of mesh is cut of sufiicient size to cover the periphery of the roller on which the lumber is formed, without any overlapping of its edges. If but one mesh is to be placed in the lumber, the layers of pulp are allowed to run onto the roller until about half of the desired depth of material has been formed. Then during the succeeding rotation of the roller the wire is fed into place passing around the roller' beneath of guiding a knife by which at the conclusion-of the.

process the cylinder of material which has been formed is cut from the roller. When the wire mesh is fed onto the roller it is placed; so that the edges of the mesh will meet along the line of this groove, so that when the material is cut from the roller it will not be neces sary to cut any ofthe mesh. The material thus slit and taken from the roller is flattened out and placed under a press where it is subject to heavy pressure. When dried it is exceedingly hard and strong and durable. In Fig. I, -I have shown a portion of a slab of this material, parts being broken away to show the structure. At 2, the full thickness of the material is shown, and at 3, one side has been removed to expose the embedded mesh. -At 4, the mesh has been removed leaving only the remaining side of the material.

Instead of embedding but one wire mesh, two or more may be used accordingrto the thickness of the structure desired. I have shown in Fig. II, a piece of material having two such meshes embedded in it. In

this figure the portion marked 10, is of full thickness.

At 11, a portion of one side has been torn away to disclose the first wire mesh 12. At 13, this wire mesh and a further portion of the embedding substance has been torn'away to expose the second wire mesh 14, it will be noticed that for the purpose ofincreasing the strength of the material, the joints of the two meshes are arranged in staggered relation, to each other. In Fig. III, this same material is shown in section, 12, and 14, representing the wires of the two meshes.

Owing to the pulpy nature of the layers of which asbestos lumber is formed, and .owing to the extreme pressure to which the product is subjected, the surfaces of the material, even though quite thin, exhibit.

hydraulic cement in the presence of a greatbulk of water,

then forming therefrom a series of thin layers of the mixed cement and asbestos, superposed on each other, whereby the'fibers of the asbestos will be positioned flat up'on each other, embedding a. layer of wire mesh between consecutive layers of the pulp before they are set, then pressing the same and allowing the material to set or harden.

3. The process of forming reinforced sheets of asbestos lumber, which consists in first mixing asbestos fibers and hydraulic cement in the presence of a great bulk 02. water, then forming a cylinder by the successive superimposition of thin continuous layers of the watery mixture, embedding a layer of wire mesh between consecutive layers of the pulp with thegends of the wire' mesh slightly spaced from 10 each other, cutting said cylinder between the spaced ends of the wire mesh, flattening out the layers thus ,snperimposed, and subjecting them to pressure and allowing the same to set.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto signed my name,

at Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania this tenth 15 I day of June 1905.

CHARLES E. WADE.

Witnesses:

JAMES H. BELL,

H. L. TAGGAB 

